By: Haja Hawa Koroma
A concerned member from the Journalists Against Injustice for Good Governance SL (JAIGG), Edmondson Soni Cole, highlighted some burning current issues that need to be addressed by the various parties involved to rectify the situation. The issues he mentioned were the Hoarding of the New Leones, the change in the EDSA unit tariff and the Lawlessness of Police officers and Military Personnel.
He said they have researched the reasons why the government decided to introduce the New Leones. He revealed that it was because many people have stacks of cash kept in their homes or other personal spaces instead of bringing the cash to the banks and this is one of the reasons why the cash flow is slow in the country. By introducing the New Leones the aim was to force these people to bring their cash to the banks as they will be left with no choice but to change their old Leones to the new ones.
Instead of achieving this aim, Mr Cole mentioned that there are rumours of people taking the old Leones notes again from the banks and keeping these monies for God knows what, probably because they would want to wait for the deadline of the old Leones to approach and make more money during the exchange.
He advises the Bank Governor to look into this and assign the necessary personnel to put a stop to this, as the banks are supposed to be issuing out the New Leones to people, not the old ones. He also advises that the Bank Governor should issue out the exact expiration date of the old Leones so that people will be aware and would have been able to change all their old Leones before the due date. Because by just saying three months is not enough for some people to take the expiration time seriously but putting an exact date will push them to act accordingly.
He added that it is unlikely for the New Money to not have a rapid flow in the market within two weeks of launching it. According to Mr Cole, the banks should answer as to why they are still giving out the old money when they are supposed to be giving out the new money only because they must try and gather all the old money not to be circulating it.
Mr Cole further mentioned that as much as the government and the people involved in the country to get lit up are trying their best in ensuring the country’s accessibility to electricity as the West African Power Pole Light has started functioning, which is a commendable act.
Yet, there is a major issue surrounding the EDSA unit tariff. So many people are complaining about the reductions in the EDSA unit. They’ve drastically reduced the unit prices compared to what they were providing and this has raised so many concerns from people across the country.
Mr. Cole pointed out that he wants to bring these concerns to the notice of EDSA and the Minister of Energy, so they can rectify these issues and come out to the public and offer explanations as to why the drastic change in EDSA units has suddenly occurred.
Furthermore, with the police and military, Mr Cole stated that most of them oftentimes think it fit to take the laws into their hands just because they are wearing that uniform.
He added that they will be tendering an official report to the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Sullay Sesay for the police and military personnel that are wrongfully taking the laws into their own hands. He says that this is an unacceptable approach to executing their duties; they should exercise their duties responsibly as no person is above the law.
